PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

So yesterday, I was doing some mixing on a track with my scopes, and the computer dies. Went to see what happened, and realized that the 12v PSU cable to the processor had melted and fused into the motherboard, leaving some black goo in place of some shiny Asus components, right by the CPU. This was a 400W PSU on an ASUS P5WD2. Alwas being in a hurry, I went out and bought the only motherboard and PSU they had in the store, and this was a Gigabyte GA-81945GZME-RH mini-ATX, which I then installed with a brand new 480W Thermaltake PSU.

Guess what happened? I simply started Windows, it asked me to install new drivers for the chipset, and voila: everything back to normal. I replaced the motherboard without having to reinstall Windows! This I could never do before, and I have built and fixed a good number of computers. All my projects, scope installation, music programs, everything is there, and working even better than before the meltdown!

Let's see how it does now. But this was a good surprise!

Cheerz!

T

It can happen sometimes!

In the two MOBO upgrades which I've performed during the last thousand years, going from a VIA chipset to an Intel one required a complete fresh install, but intel chipset-to-more-modern-intel chipset just required windows to install the updated MOBO drivers and all was well.

Glad to hear that nothing more than the MOBO caught fire!

You bet!

For 3 days, my pc would die in the middle of work, and I would go through rebooting, defragmenting the registry, scanning the hard disks for errors and viruses, I would take off the scope cards and install them again, checked RAM, everything. Then it would restart, work for a little while, and die again. I even let it powered on all night to see if it would stay on, and it did... It was only after all this time that I actually took the PSU out, and noticed the melting of the CPU power socket...

It could easily have burned down to ashes, so yes, really lucky to have lost only the MoBo...

if the power socket melted, there was a short circuit (or something close to a short circuit) on the mobo, and guess what that may have been.... ?
if you still have the board around take a look - I'm almost certain that one (or more) of the big caps around the supply line close to the CPU socket is damaged (bulky, leaked etc)... don't call me annoying, it wasn't me...

cheers, Tom

Hello Astroman, now you got me puzzled...

I still have the board, but everything looks normal to me... Do you believe that there could be some fault on the CPU itself, or maybe on the Scope boards, GPU, RME?

My theory is that this was a PSU malfunction, I believe the 400W one that came with the Nexus case was simply not enough for all the boards,USB and Firewire devices installed. But now you got me thinking that this could be far from over!

On the one hand, if it was a MoBo malfunction, it's good, because, not only is it out of the box, but I can still send it back and get a new one (2 year warranty). The PSU as well, but I already got a better one fitted in, so I don't want another one like that... But if it was any other component, it will happen again, and I wish it didn't, I might not be so lucky next time... And I don't want to risk my Scopes and much valued software

Is there anything I should be double-checking, in your opinion?

Many thanks, and much peace,

T

oops, I didn't read the number correctly, that's a pretty new thing with an apparently different power regulation on the board...
I thought it was an older one where they used to buffer the supply lines with big electrolytic capacitors around the CPU socket. Since this is a hot area, the capacitors age rather fast, and it's not a rare case that such capacitors leak with possible internal shortcuits, sometimes they even explode and if too much of the content 'drops' on the powerlines that could also add up to a short circuit.

your board doesn't look like that - and 'modern' power regulations are much more effective and get along with smaller capacitors.

so it's in fact more likely that the PSU is the source, probably an over-voltage melted somthing at the CPU which in turn acted as a shortcircuit so the increased flow of current meltetd the power connector as well.

Yet electrolytic capacitors inside the PSU suffer from the same scenario as pictured above.
I have a fanless for 150 Euro that once failed (under warranty) and came back 'repaired'. After half a year of use suddenly the PC wouldn't boot correctly and strange noise was to be heard when powering it up - then nothing.

With a creeping suspect I opened the PSU and all 12 output buffer capacitors were broken, leaked, or bulky - all without exception.
As mentioned, it's a fanless construction, and as such the regulation heat must be transported to the outside somehow.
For that purpose it has a very massive heatsink, that's (supposed to be) tightly fixed to an equally massive one on the PSU's backside.

Guess what ? They simply forgot to fix the screws that connect the 2 heatsinks, so heat built up inside and literally roasted the caps, which btw were the correct 120 degree Celcius types, yet they hardly survived half a year...

These capacitors are a serious concern if a manufacturer uses types with uncertain quality (as is the case in many cheap PSUs because good caps are expensive)
They are also a concern if they are exposed to significant heat for a long time - their aging is a natural (and unavoidable) process, but heat can tremendously accelerate it.

cheers, Tom

astroman wrote:
Guess what ? They simply forgot to fix the screws that connect the 2 heatsinks, so heat built up inside and literally roasted the caps, which btw were the correct 120 degree Celcius types, yet they hardly survived half a year...

Dear me, that's some serious neglect...

I hope this new PSU does the job... Its nice too, with multi colored LEDs that make a light show on the wall behind it. Anyway, many thanks for your interest, and best of luck!

Much peace,

T

Tau wrote:...Dear me, that's some serious neglect... ...

yes, and a funny one too...
how would you proove it was them and not me with the dementia ?

we all learn from these cases, thanks for sharing

cheers, Tom

astroman wrote:we all learn from these cases

amen. i sure do..